PER CAPITA COST OF COURTS 


Addendum of August 75 , 1921 


By 


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ALEXANDER B 

A ttorney-at-Law 


ANDREWS 

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239 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, N. C. 


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Richmond, Va. 

Whittet & Shepperson, Printers 













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New York Pub. Lifey. 

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Raleigh, N. C., 
August IS, 1921. 




The cordial reception accorded the monograph “Per Capita 
Cost of Courts,” which was printed by the writer, in pamphlet and 
distributed in March, April and May, and reprinted in the West 
Publishing Company’s Docket for April-May, 1921, has far sur¬ 
passed the writer’s fondest expectations that it would be of value to 
the profession. 

Any compilation to be of service must, like an almanac, be 
brought down to date, as it is the present in which we live. In 
the hopes that this addendum may serve that purpose it has been pre¬ 
pared, as the figures given in the monograph were, as of December 
1, 1920. 

During the year 1921 there were eight State Legislatures that 
acted favorably on salary increases for their Supreme Courts, which 
were as follows: 


STATE FORMER SALARY 1 92 1 SALARY 

Pennsylvania . $14,000 $17,500 

New York . 13,700 17,500 

Michigan. 7,000 10,000 

North Carolina . 5,350 6,350 

Maine . 5,000 6,000 

New Hampshire . 5,000 6,000 

Florida . 4 > 5 00 5 > 5 00 

Vermont . 4,000 5 > 0G0 


As the salary of the Court of Appeals (the highest court) in New 
York is fixed by the Constitution the increased salary of $17,500 will 
not be effective until after it has been ratified by the voters at the 
general election in the fall of 1922. The other seven increases are 
by statute, and went into effect immediately. 










The salaries now paid the Judges of the Supreme Courts in 
the 48 States are (as of July 1, 1921) as follows: 


RANK 

SALARY 

STATE 

I. 

$17,500 

in Pennsylvania (New York constitutional 
amendment to be voted on Fall of 1922). 

2. 

14,000 

in New Jersey. 

3 - 

13,700 

in New York. 

4 - 

12,000 

in Massachusetts. 

5 - 6 . 

10,000 

in Illinois and Michigan. 

7 - 

9,000 

in Connecticut. 

8-9. 

8,500 

in Ohio and Wisconsin. 

10-13. 

8,000 

in California, Louisiana, Rhode Island and 
West Virginia. 

14-18. 

7 > 5 oo 

in Delaware, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana 

and Nebraska. 

19-20. 

7,000 

in Georgia and Washington. 

21. 

6,800 

in Maryland. 

22-24 

6,500 

in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. 

25- 

6,350 

in North Carolina. 

26-33- 

6,000 

in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, 
New Hampshire, New Mexico and Okla¬ 
homa. 

34 - 36 . 

5 , 5 oo 

in Florida, North Dakota and Tennessee. 

37 - 38 - 

5,200 

in Oregon and Virginia. 

39 - 45 - 

5,000 

in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, 
Utah, Vermont and Wyoming. 

46. 

4 , 5 oo. 

in South Carolina. 

47 - 

4,000 

in Arkansas. 

48. 

3,ooo 

in South Dakota. 


4 


FEDERAL JUDGES: 


$14,500 United States Supreme Court. 

8.500 Circuit Court of Appeals. 

7.500 United States District Judges. 

It will be seen that the salaries paid by Pennsylvania to its 
Supreme Court Judges are now $3,500 greater than the salaries paid 
by the United States to the Justices of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 


ENGLISH JUDICIAL SALARIES 

The Lord High Chancellor of England receives a salary of 
$50,000. The Lord Chief Justice of England a salary of $40,000, 
while the Justices of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the 
Justices of the King’s Bench and Chancery Courts each receive 
$25,000. Part of this compensation may be due to, and based upon, 
living expenses in the City of London, and the style of living expected 
of the Justices of the highest court of England. However, all of 
the other English-speaking Judges are better paid than the Ameri¬ 
can Judges; for instance, the Lord President of the Court of Session 
of Scotland $25,000, while the Justices receive $18,000. Simi¬ 
larly, the Lord High Chancellor of Ireland receives $30,000, the 
Lord Chief Justice $25,000 and the Justices $20,000. The Judges 
of the King’s Bench Division (the trial court) of Ireland receive 
$17,500, while the same trial Judges in England receive $25,000. 


AVERAGE STATE SUPREME COURT SALARY 

The average salary of the 286 Supreme Court Judges of the 
United States is now $7,447, as of July 1, 1921. As of December 1, 
1920, the 284 Supreme Court Judges (Idaho Supreme bench in¬ 
creased from 3 to 5) averaged $7,185. (Page 6 of Per Capita Cost 


5 


of Courts.) So the aggregate of all the increased salary in 1921, in 
the seven states divided among the 286 Supreme Court Judges, 
raises the average $262 per year, or seventy-two cents per day. 
Surely this cannot be called rank extravagance. There are only 18 
states that pay above that average ($7,447), while 30 pay less than 
that average. If the increased salary in New York (to be voted on 
in 1922) be averaged with the existing salaries, then average for 
each of the 286 Judges would be $7,570. 

This average is practically the salary paid by the United States 
to its District Judges, which is $7,500, while the salary paid to the 
Judges of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals is 8,500. 

It should be noted that in 1921 the Pennsylvania Legislature 
increased the salaries of the Superior Court (an appellate court to 
relieve the Supreme Court) to $16,000, which is a higher salary than 
any other state pays its Supreme Court. Evidently the state of 
Pennsylvania highly regards its judiciary, and believes in compensat¬ 
ing its Judges for the valuable work they do. 

If the states be grouped according to the conventional, unofficial 
reporter system, including the seven states increasing salaries in 
1921 (New York being disregarded), then we have them ranking 
as follows: 


Supreme Court Reporter .$14,500 

New York Supplement. 14,285 

Northeastern Reporter . 10,569 

Atlantic Reporter. 9,248 

Federal Reporter . 7,766 

Northwestern Reporter . 7,079 

Southern Reporter . 6,608 

Southeastern Reporter . 6,202 

Pacific Reporter . 6,059 

Southwestern Reporter . 5,722 


6 












During the session of 1921 the Legislature of South Dakota 
increased the expense allowance of their Supreme Court Judges (the 
salary being a constitutional provision) from $600 to $1,800, it 
being done by practically unanimous vote, as only one vote was 
cast against it in the entire Legislature. 

The Supreme Court of Idaho has been increased .from 3 to 5 
members. The five states now having a Supreme Court bench 
of three members are Texas, New Mexica, Arizona, Nevada and 
Wyoming. 

The 286 Supreme Court Judges average a bench of 6 to each 
of the 48 states, the number in the several states varying from 3 to 
10, and being as follows: 

SUPREME COURT JUDGES STATES 

10. New York (1). 

9. New Jersey, Oklahoma and Wash¬ 

ington (3). 

8. Maine, Maryland and Michigan (3). 

7. Alabama, California, Colorado, Illi¬ 

nois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massa¬ 
chusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, 
Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wiscon¬ 
sin (14). 

6. Georgia and Mississippi (2). 

5. Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Dela¬ 

ware, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, 
Minnesota, Montana, New Hamp¬ 
shire, North Carolina, North Dakota, 
Rhode Island, South Carolina, South 
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, 
Virginia and West Virginia (20). 

3: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas 

and Wyoming (5). 


7 


0 028 001 706 1 


This information has been hastily put together, compiled as it 
is from letters of acknowledgment and information written to the 
writer growing out of the publication of the monograph. It is 
far from complete, but it is a beginning in the ascertaining of facts 
vitally affecting the American Judicial System, and if the facts 
here assembled create in any one the desire to look further into 
the question, then the writer has been amply repaid for the time 
given to the assembling of these facts. Our American people want 
to decide, and usually do decide, any matter after full ascertain¬ 
ment of the facts involved, and in just that same way ought every 
question to be presented to any one. 

Raleigh, N. C. Alexander B. Andrews. 


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